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System76 Serval Professional Sandy Bridge

Phoronix: System76 Serval Professional Sandy Bridge

The past few months on Phoronix and OpenBenchmarking.org you may have noticed several Intel Core i7 "Sandy Bridge" mobile benchmarks. This Linux mobile SNB testing was being done from a System76 Serval Professional notebook. Here is a look at this Linux-friendly notebook that ships with Ubuntu 10.10.

System76, if you're listening please release a laptop with the following specs:

- 14'' Screen, 15.XX are too big and 13.XX are just too small.
- Quad Core Sandy Bridge, not including hyperthreading, real cores.
- OPTIONAL ATI graphics. I might or might not want Intel graphics, using ATI ensures I have good open source drivers available on top of great open Intel graphics drivers.
- Wireless of course
- HDMI out
- Firewire 800 or more
- E-Sata
- 8gigs RAM minimum
- SD slot

After my disappointment with my ASUS (which I'm about to send back again as now the built-in trackpad is intermittently cutting out, after the blue-tooth already started cutting out... sigh), these are actually pretty interesting. If only they had some notebooks with 17" screens, I'd buy one.

lopho: You can get matte-style screens from many manufacturers still if you order them that way. Matte screens are more expensive, and they have very poor color range compared to the glossy screens (which matters for those of us looking to do graphics work).

If the System76 machines don't meet your needs, and if you're looking for a laptop from a great reseller who cares about its customers, has great features, and doesn't require you to buy a copy of Windows for the machine, try the Sager notebooks from XoticPC. I'm thinking of replacing my POS ASUS with this one (http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8170s...hm-p-2982.html) but there are some more modest Sager models available too, including a few with ATI graphics for anyone interested in the more FOSS-friendly GPU support.

My old 14" notebook was just too small for me, personally. Had to constantly choose between not being able to see what I was looking at because it was too small or not being able to see all of what I was looking at because it was too big.

Dimensions are dimensions and no matter how well designed light and beautiful apple laptops are, above 15 they are beasts. Mind you i wouldn't go near an apple product.

However it all depends on the type of job you do and what kind of job you do on the move. I am not saying they don't have their place in the market but i find that a small laptop and a big screen (30" ) when you are in office mode is more "correct" IMO.

Nice notebook.

I was in the market for a high end notebook with these features: Sandybridge quad core cpu like 2630qm or better, nvidia gtx 460m or higher gpu, 1980x1080p or higher resolution preferably matte, potentially dual hard drive, backlit keyboard, usb 3.0 and aesthetically simple (that doesn't look gaudy or scream gaming).

The Serval almost fits this description, but System76's Gazelle professional has that rare awesome matte display. However, both of them lack backlit keyboard, which is almost a deal killer for me. The other deal killer was the lack of second hard drive slot. Note that Serval and Gazelle also have a rare DVI port.

I would also note that Serval and Gazelle are the same (chasis) as Clevo P150HM and P151HM1 (see avadirect dot com), also sold by Sager as NP8130 (see xoticpc dot com, which should also be the cheapest option).

I eventually ended up buying a Asus G53SW-XN1 (from NewEgg, which should arrive before this weekend). While it has glossy screen, it has backlit keyboard. The looks are not so modest, but since I already have a Asus G50VT, I am comfortable with it and also very convinced about the build quality.